Shams Zaman has been appointed corporate and investment banking head of Citibank NA, Bangladesh, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

Zaman will be responsible for Citi's corporate, global subsidiaries, financial institutions, public sector and investment banking businesses in Bangladesh.

Zaman joined Citi in 2004 and worked at Peregrine and Union Capital for seven years prior to that. He has

experience in corporate finance, credit risk, marketing and negotiation, treasury and strategic management.

He holds an MBA from Victoria University Australia and a BBA from North South University in Bangladesh.

The central bank yesterday offered monetary incentives to banks to join its national payment switch (NPS), in efforts to give it a boost.

From April 1, a card issuing bank will give only Tk 20 to the ATM-installer-bank for each interbank transaction; the rate is Tk 25 at present, Bangladesh Bank said in a notice yesterday.

But no card issuing bank will be allowed to charge a customer more than Tk 10 for each transaction, down from as much as Tk 25 at the moment.

“This is a good move, both for the banks and clients,” said Abul Kashem Mohammad Shirin, deputy managing director of Dutch-Bangla Bank.

More banks will now be encouraged to join the NPS, he added.

BB has taken the initiative to strengthen NPS in order to facilitate interbank electronic payments originating

from different delivery channels—automated teller machines, point of sales, internet, and mobile applications.

The main objective of NPS is to create a common platform among the existing shared switches already built-up by different private sector operators.

NPS will facilitate the expansion of the card based payment networks substantially and promote e-commerce throughout the country.

The central bank launched NPS in December 2012 with a $5 million financial support from the World Bank, but

only three banks—Dutch-Bangla, Southeast and Pubali—have so far joined the payment switch.
Most other banks use Q-cash or Dutch-Bangla payment gateways.

The volume of transactions using an ATM booth stood at Tk 100,000 crore in 2012, up from the previous year's Tk 68,000 crore, according to data from BB.

Of the 47 scheduled banks (which does not include the nine new banks), 40 provide ATM services.

An ATM booth owning bank can charge Tk 5 from a client for a balance inquiry or mini statement, according to

the notice.  

“This move will encourage banks to set up more ATM booths, which will ultimately help expand banking services to a wider segment of people,” the central bank said.  

The central bank said the advantages of this new payment platform are enormous and e-commerce will

spread across the country. Even then, BB will not charge a penny from the customers, it said.

Once all banks in Bangladesh join the NPS, a customer using a credit or debit card of any bank will be able to draw cash from any ATM and POS in the country. Transaction costs will significantly go down as the

transactions will be routed through the NPS instead of Visa, Master or Amex card networks abroad.

Moreover, clients will be able to make purchases with cards through the internet and web portals within the country.

“Visa and Master card authorities will lose their earnings from Bangladesh as they will not get any network fee,” said Shirin of Dutch-Bangla.

The card issuer banks would pay Tk20 to the booth-owner bank for each transaction, but the card issuer bank could charge highest Tk10 from their clients

Clients of banks under National Payment Switch of Bangladesh (NPSB) would enjoy lower charge for inter-bank ATM (automated teller machine) transactions from April 1.

The card issuer banks would pay Tk20 to the booth-owner bank for each transaction, but the card issuer bank could charge highest Tk10 from their clients, said a circular Bangladesh Bank issued yesterday.

At present, clients are charged at least Tk15 for each transaction.

Bangladesh Bank introduced the NPS in December last to create a common platform among the existing shared switches already built-up by different private sector operators.

The operation of the NPS started yesterday with seven participant banks.  

The NPS project was taken by the BB to bring all the ATM card holders of different banks under one umbrella so that any card holder of any bank can draw money from any booth through the inter-operability system.

According to the circular, card issuer bank would pay charge of Tk5 to the booth-owner bank for balance inquiry or take mini-statement by using ATM of other banks.

Card issuer bank could also charge it from their clients.

ATM card issuer might also be refrained from imposing any charge on their clients. Bangladesh Bank would not charge on its clients at this moment for maintaining the NPSB.

There is financial involvement in setting up of ATM booths, maintenance, ensuring security and storing cash. As a result, expenditure of the ATM owner banks will increase in providing the services to the other banks’ clients.

In this context, Bangladesh Bank imposed the minimum service charge on transactions and another service for using one bank’s ATM by other banks’ clients, said the circular. 

The government has formed a six-member committee to recommend measures within two months to help prevent burglary at the state-owned banks.

The committee of the Banking and Financial Institutions Division (BFID) would make surprise visits to any branch of the eight state-owned banks to see on ground the actual security condition of the branches, said an official yesterday.

He said the committee was formed in the backdrop of burglary in Bogra and Kishoreganj branches of Sonali Bank.

Earlier, Banking Division Secretary Aslam Alam had said they formed a committee, headed by BFID’s additional secretary Amalendu Mukherjee.

Other members of the committee are Bangladesh Bank Executive Director of SM Muniruzzaman and deputy managing directors of Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks. It could co-opt any officers and experts, if necessary.  

According to a circular issued yesterday, the committee will give suggestions after receiving related recommendations from state-owned banks. It would regularly evaluate and monitor the security and vault management of the bank branches after the inspection.   

The committee will also look after the insurance policy and rules for vault and security, and seek help from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology to enhance the technical standard of the strong rooms, vaults and other safety aspects.

Meanwhile, Sonali Bank board formed 61 teams to monitoring the security management of every chest branches of the across the country. 

 Export Import Bank of Bangladesh Limited organised a traditional Mezban for its clients at “The King of Chittagong” recently.

Md. Abdul Mannan, MP, Habibullah Dawn, Major (Rtd) Khandaker Nurul Afsar, Alhaj Md. Nurul Amin, Mohammad Omar Farooque Bhuiyan, Anjan Kumar Saha, Abdullah Al Jahir Swapan, Directors, Dr. Mohammed Haider Ali Miah, MD of EXIM Bank, along with chairmen and directors of different banks, top executives were present at the Mejban.